Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care

Sarasota Memorial delivers the most comprehensive and advanced cardiovascular services in the region. With our multi-disciplinary, team-based approach to cardiac care, patients benefit from collective expertise and decades of experience in evaluating and treating such conditions as irregular heartbeat, heart attack, heart failure, coronary artery disease, valve disorders, and other cardiovascular and thoracic disorders.

For information and referrals, call 941-917-7777.

Conditions We Treat

SMH’s heart team provides advanced cardiac care with the latest diagnostic and treatment options for a full range of cardiovascular conditions, including:

• Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)
• Coronary Artery Disease
• Heart failure
• Mitral Valve Prolapse
• Aortic Aneurysm
• Congenital Heart Disease
• Carotid Disease
• Peripheral Vascular Disease
• Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM)
• Valvular heart conditions requiring valve repair or valve replacement

Cardiac Diagnostic, Interventional, Treatment & Rehab Services

Sarasota Memorial provides convenient access to comprehensive cardiac services — from rapid assessment and treatment of chest pain to a full spectrum of screenings and non-invasive testing to detect cardiovascular risk factors, and the latest treatment options, including cardiac catheterization, open and minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Our growing menu of services includes:

• Cardiac catheterization (including emergency angioplasty for heart attack and induced hypothermia for cardiac arrest and stroke)
• Cardiovascular surgery
• Cardiovascular ultrasound
• Echocardiogram (EKG/ECG)
• Electrophysiology with advanced mapping and ablation therapies
• Interventional and neurointerventional radiology
• MICS (Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery)
• Nuclear Medicine studies
• Robotic surgical options
• Thoracic surgery
• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)
• Trans-Esophageal Echocardiography (TEE)
• Vascular surgery (valve repair or valve replacement)
• Watchman implant for AFib patients

Sarasota Memorial Heart Team

Collaboration is the cornerstone of the SMH cardiac care program, and it is the key to successful patient outcomes. Our nationally recognized physician team performs more than 1,000 cardiac surgeries and 6,000 catheter-based procedures each year.

The heart team comprises cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, electrophysiologists, critical care specialists, cardiac surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, vascular surgeons, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation therapists, other specialists and specially trained support staff.

Program Features

• Mobile intensive care units for quick and safe patient transfer.
• Internationally recognized surgical team with extensive experience in minimally invasive and robotic cardiac and thoracic procedures.
• Region’s largest robotic surgery program.
• Dedicated, cutting-edge surgical suites for cardiac surgery, including hybrid ORs for minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
• Advanced cardiac catheterization and cardiac critical-care capabilities, including the ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) heart-lung bypass system.
• Multidisciplinary valve clinic and structural heart program for people with complex heart valve disorders.
• Outpatient disease management clinics for people managing congestive heart failure, blood thinner medications and stroke.
• Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and medically integrated fitness programs to improve quality of life for people living with heart, lung and vascular disease.
• Long-held partnership with the Columbia University Medical School’s Division of Cardiac Surgery provides our patients and physicians with greater access to cutting-edge diagnostic and treatment services; access to Columbia University’s Cardiac Surgery faculty and research database; opportunities to participate in research initiatives and clinical trials; and referrals for procedures such as pediatric heart surgery and heart transplants.

Awards & Honors

Sarasota Memorial and its cardiac services team have been consistently recognized for superior patient care, outcomes and performance.

• Named among 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals in US in the 2021 Fortune/IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals list. SMH-Sarasota was the only hospital in Southwest Florida to make the 2021 list.


• Earned "high performer" ratings in all 15 procedures and conditions — including cardiac bypass surgery, aortic valve surgery, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, transcatheter aortic valve replacement(TAVR), heart attack and heart failure — evaluated in U.S. News’ 2021-2022 “Best Hospitals” study.  


• Top honors for medical outcomes and excellence in the American Heart Association (AHA) and American Stroke Association (ASA) annual “Get With The Guidelines” assessments: “Heart Failure Gold Plus Honor Roll,” “Stroke Gold Plus with Honor Roll Elite” and “Gold Plus Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll.”


• Awarded the American Heart Association and the Mitral Foundation's 2021 Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center Award for a demonstrated record of superior clinical outcomes. 


• First hospital in Southwest Florida to earn Transcatheter Valve (TAVR) Certification from the American College of Cardiology, in recognition of our heart team's expertise in TAVR. SMH is one of 25 hospitals nationwide to receive this certification.   


• Echocardiogram Accreditation for Adult, Pediatrics and Transesophageal procedures through the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC).


• Only hospital in Florida to have consistently earned the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid's highest 5-star rating for overall quality and safety since the rating system launched in 2016.


• Earned consecutive “A” grades for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group, a national organization that evaluates hospitals' efforts to protect patients from preventable injuries and harm, since SMH began participating in Leapfrog's survey in 2016.


• Honored with 3 Beacon Awards for Nursing Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses for high-quality patient care: Gold Beacon Award of Excellence for the Cardiac Acute Telemetry Unit; Silver Beacon Award of Excellence for the Critical Care Unit; and Silver Beacon Award of Excellence for the Cardiovascular Thoracic Stepdown/Cardiac Progressive 3 Unit.